What Disney needs to fix in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland

Analysis: The necessary fixes needed to get Galaxy’s Edge in proper working order may take months or years to materialize. In the meantime, the problems don’t go anywhere. They just sit and wait and become more glaring with time.

Black Spire Outpost on the planet of Batuu is far enough on the galaxy’s edge that crowds are not a problem at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, July 3, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge remains a work in progress filled with seemingly unlimited potential once the new themed lands at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios have a chance to adjust, change, grow and evolve over time.

Like any new home, the Star Wars lands in California and Florida have a punch list of honey-dos that need to be repaired and fixed once there’s enough time, will and money. But you have to take care of the immediate issues on the short-term list before diving into the longer-term plans and bigger dream projects.

The necessary fixes needed to get Galaxy’s Edge in proper working order may take months or years to materialize. In the meantime, the problems don’t go anywhere. They just sit and wait and become more glaring with time.

Theme parks are living and breathing places. As with any new venture, there are usually growing pains and learning curves. The disastrous opening of Disneyland in 1955 is known as Black Sunday in Disney lore because everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Disney California Adventure debuted to blistering negative reviews in 2001 that dogged Disneyland’s second gate until the Mouse eventually committed to a complete reimagining of the park. New theme park lands and rides often go through the same torturous birthing process.

Walt Disney Imagineering knows what needs to be done to fix Galaxy’s Edge. Imagineers have talked about their plans for the Star Wars lands for years and made grand promises about what visitors would find in Black Spire Outpost on the Star Wars planet of Batuu. Rest assured Galaxy’s Edge will be a completely different place once those promises are fulfilled.

Let’s take a closer look at what Disney needs to fix in Galaxy’s Edge and how those changes could reverse the notion that the new Star Wars lands are a flop and a failure.

Chewbacca welcomes visitors to Black Spire Outpost during the first day without needing a reservation at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge inside Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on June 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Entertainment

The most glaring problem in Galaxy’s Edge is the sheer lack of entertainment. After a series of cuts to live acts at both of Disney’s Anaheim parks, it appears the entertainment planned for Galaxy’s Edge also ended up on the chopping block. It’s simply unimaginable that Disney would open one of it’s biggest new lands with barely any entertainment.

Some type of show involving lightsabers, The Force and the Dark Side on one of the many underused stages in Galaxy’s Edge seems like a no-brainer. Early blueprints indicated a parade route would run through Black Spire Outpost. A stunt show during an opening night press event featured a dozen actors, special effects, blaster fire and pyrotechnics on the stage above the landspeeder garage. Any of those would be a huge boost to Galaxy’s Edge.

One of the simplest solutions would be to play some Star Wars music during the nightly Disneyland fireworks show that takes place right over the Millennium Falcon. At the moment, Disneyland doesn’t even make an announcement in Galaxy’s Edge that the fireworks are about to start or play the music that goes with the nighttime spectacular. Why can’t Batuuans celebrate every night with a magical light show in the sky and some Star Wars music? Fireworks show up in several scenes in “Star Wars” movies.

Music is a key missing component in Galaxy’s Edge. Disney announced with much fanfare that John Williams had created an original “Theme from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge” for the land. But the soaring symphonic piece, which received a Grammy Award on Sunday, Jan. 26, is rarely if ever heard in the land.

Imagineering made a conscious effort to differentiate the background music track in Galaxy’s Edge from any other land at a Disney theme park. Instead, you hear chimes or drums in some locations and the sounds of spacecraft streaking overhead. An alien radio station plays in the bathrooms. A hint of the John Williams soundtrack for Star Wars can be heard briefly in Savi’s Workshop or the attractions. The only place you really hear a soundtrack in the land is at Oga’s Cantina courtesy of DJ R-3X.

The background music in Disney theme parks is a crucial part of the overall experience. It triggers emotions and sends signals to your brain about how you’re supposed to feel. Without it, Galaxy’s Edge feels flat and lifeless compared to the rest of Disneyland. The real world may not have a soundtrack, but you miss the background music when you walk into Galaxy’s Edge — even if you don’t realize it. A little blast of John Williams’ famed Star Wars scores as you’re entering the land would go a long way.

Characters

The fastest and easiest way to fix Galaxy’s Edge would be to do what Disney does best: Characters. The best place to start: The promised creatures, aliens and droids that are supposed to be inhabiting Batuu.

The next step: The shopkeepers whom Imagineering and Lucasfilm went to great lengths to develop for each location in Black Spire Outpost. Ask where Savi, Oga or Strono “Cookie” Tuggs are while visiting Batuu and you’ll be told they just left on a trip to another planet in the galaxy. Don’t bother waiting around for them. You’ll never catch them. They are always unavailable at the moment.

Remember how Imagineering endlessly talked about how your reputation would follow you around Batuu and a bounty hunter might tap you on the shoulder in Oga’s looking for the galactic credits you owe Honda Ohnaka. No need to worry. There are no bounty hunters in Black Spire Outpost. Disney hasn’t hired any yet.

Instead, Disney wants us to believe that the cast members working in the shops, restaurants and attractions are the characters you paid $149 to see in Galaxy’s Edge. If the cast members are going to play roles in the land then they need to be empowered to become storytellers and actively explain the elaborate backstories woven into their shops and restaurants. So far that isn’t happening.

The actors hired by Disneyland to play Rey, Vi Moradi, Chewbacca, Kylo Ren and the stormtroopers are fantastic. We just need more of them in the form of Finn, Poe Dameron, Captain Phasma, Maz Kanata, Rose Tico and General Hux.

It’s great that R2-D2 is finally roaming the land, but what about C-3PO, D-O and Tomorrowland’s J4-K3. If BB-8 can wander the halls of Imagineering, when will the ball droid roll around the streets of Batuu?

Imagineering imbued Galaxy’s Edge with a rich backstory and promised that an evolving story line would unfold throughout the day that visitors could take part in. This has been done successfully with Ghost Town Alive at Knott’s Berry Farm and Mythos at the Evermore theme park in Utah. Even Disneyland has dabbled in immersive storytelling experiences with the Legends of Frontierland.

Right now, too much of the in-universe storytelling is reliant on the Galaxy’s Edge Datapad app. Disney needs to connect the digital mobile app experiences to character interactions in Galaxy’s Edge.

Even though a boarding system was planed for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, visitors to Disneyland can run right in at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, July 3, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Placemaking

Compared to the rest of Disneyland, Galaxy’s Edge often feels dead and lifeless. There are a number of reasons for this.

The first is kinetic energy. You don’t notice it’s missing until it’s not there. Unlike Fantasyland, with all its spinning rides, floating boats and rolling trains, there is very little movement in Galaxy’s Edge. Part of the reason is the attractions in Galaxy’s Edge are indoors.

Imagineering made a conscious decision to keep classic theme park attractions out of Galaxy’s Edge. If you wouldn’t see it in a “Star Wars” movie, then you won’t find it in Galaxy’s Edge.

As a result, you won’t find a whirling Astro Orbiter in Batuu. Or a Matterhorn Bobsled-like roller coaster weaving through the towering spires that lend the village its name.

But there are other ways to create movement in a theme park land. The best way is with people — in shows and parades as costumed characters. Disneyland comes alive when vintage vehicles motor down Main Street U.S.A., parade floats stream past Sleeping Beauty Castle and lively musicians fill the streets of New Orleans Square with song. A few key entertainment elements could bring Galaxy’s Edge to life.

Another reason Galaxy’s Edge feels less busy and bustling than other lands at the Anaheim theme park is scale. The new 14-acre Star Wars land is massive. And the streets of the village are wider than what you might find in New Orleans Square. Disneyland has worked to widen the walkways in the park, but Galaxy’s Edge was built from the ground up with larger crowds in mind. The bigger spaces feel less intimate and require more activity to bring them to life.

A third reason Galaxy’s Edge can feel dead is because a big chunk of the land was only recently activated. The opening of Rise of the Resistance should help the forest on the Resistance side of the land feel less empty and under-utilized.

The entrance to the Rise of the Resistance ride during the first day without needing a reservation at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge inside Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on June 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Attractions

One of the biggest knocks against Galaxy’s Edge is there is not enough to do.

That’s in part because there was only one attraction in Galaxy’s Edge for the first seven months — Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. Rise of the Resistance doubles the number to two rides.

Other lands at Disneyland have greater ride density. Fantasyland has 13 attractions. Tomorrowland and Toontown have seven each. Frontierland has five. To be fair, Toontown counts Mickey Mouse’s house as an attraction and the Frontierland Shootin’ Exposition counts as one too. For the longest time Galaxy’s Edge only had one ride. Rise of the Resistance should help make Galaxy’s Edge feel more complete.

Disney briefly alluded to a third attraction that never materialized in Galaxy’s Edge. Concept art revealed by Disney during the Blue Sky phase of the project envisioned 20-foot-tall tusked wooly mammoth-like creatures giving rides to visitors. But that’s likely years away if it were to ever materialize at all.

The short-term solution would be live entertainment. Galaxy’s Edge is filled with underused stages intended for seemingly impromptu shows. It would be easy to bring back the popular Jedi Training Academy that let lightsaber-wielding young padawans duel Kylo Ren. The stage in front of the First Order TIE Echelon Fighter would be a perfect venue.

The Marketplace at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, May 29, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Shopping & Dining

Another common complaint about Galaxy’s Edge is that almost everything costs money. Many of the most popular experiences in Black Spire Outpost combine fun with commerce.

Want to build your own lightsaber at Savi’s Workshop? That’ll be $200. How about your own personal astromech at the Droid Depot. Another $100 please. Want to stop by Oga’s Cantina? You’ll need a reservation and the interstellar cocktails will set you back as much as $18 a pop. Always wanted to try Blue Milk? That’ll be another $8. And Batuu doesn’t take galactic credits. Only cold hard cash or credit cards.

Of course, Disneyland can be expensive. But Galaxy’s Edge will put a bigger dent in your credit card much faster than any other land in the park.

One solution: More things to do in Galaxy’s Edge that are included with the cost of admission. Oga’s Cantina is guarded like a bank vault. How about letting in visitors who just want to see the wretched hive of scum and villainy and check out DJ R-3X for a few minutes without making a reservation or buying a drink? What about letting kids build a lightsaber without having to plunk down hundreds of dollars for the experience? Disneyland has started experimenting with this idea by letting visitors play with the hand-built droids without forking over $100. That should help build goodwill and likely drive sales.

Much of it comes down to money and how much Disney’s number crunchers are willing to loosen the pursestrings. But even a street musician wandering through the Black Spire marketplace or a Batuuan a cappella group entertaining diners near Ronto Roasters would be an improvement.

Imagineering announced plans for an sit-down, full-service “dinner club” restaurant that quietly got dropped from Galaxy’s Edge. While seats would likely be harder to come by than a reservation at Oga’s, the upscale restaurant would add some much-needed entertainment to Galaxy’s Edge.

Brady MacDonald is a theme park reporter for the Orange County Register and the Southern California News Group. He’s covered the theme park industry for more than 25 years. He writes about Disney, Universal, Six Flags, SeaWorld, Cedar Fair and Legoland parks in Southern California, across the United States and around the world. As a member of the SCNG Features team, he also writes about entertainment, travel, pop culture, music, restaurants and craft beer.

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